Snow dusting.

Whilst the rest of the UK has been having a fairly decent amount of snow (decent by our standards. My Americans, don't laugh!), here in the West Midlands we have had hardly anything!! I'm really not happy. All we've had are the abnormally freezing cold temperatures and a cold house. Yay.

This morning we did wake up to a light dusting of snow (still not too happy with that). I took the pup for a walk at the canal. It was really beautiful, with the water frozen over, and the canal boats seemingly trapped in the ice.

Here are some pics.

Ducks on the frozen water

Skye

Locks

Frozen water

First pheasant day, as told by Skye

Today was the first pheasant day.

I was very excited because mom took with me with her again! It was fun to spend the day with her. She was very proud of me because I wasn't that scared of the other dogs, and I didn't run away from them.

It was very exciting going new places, and sniffing all the new smells. I didn't really like being on the lead, and loved it when she let me off so I could run.

On one of the drives we went through game cover, which was really just a tangle of beans (which mom got in her wellies! I thought it was funny), and it was really hard to get through. So because mom was already walking through it in front of me, I just decided to follow in her footsteps and follow the path she was making.

She told me that she didn't think that's what a gun dog was meant to do, but that she thought I was very smart anyway. I think she was secretly impressed with my cleverness (and to be honest, I think she thought it was cute!)

I'm starting to get the hang of this now, the whole thing about flushing the birds out. It's all so very exciting! And I love watching the birds flying!

On one of the drives, a lot of birds got up right in front of me, but mom wouldn't let me chase them :-( I was a good girl though and listened to the whistle and didn't go running after them. Tony (who has the pointers) told me that if it hadn't been for me, a lot of those birds wouldn't have got up and flown! Everyone kept telling me what a good girl I was and how well behaved I was (even the keeper said I was very good!) I think mom was very proud!

One of the drives went through the woods. I wasn't too keen on the briars in the beginning, but I was a brave girl and tackled the briars just like a good little Spaniel should. I did try and follow mom on this one as well, it made it easier! It was fun though going through the woods with mom.

It was a very exciting day, yet also tiring, and I curled up on the backseat of the car and went to sleep on the way home. I heard mom say something about the final number being 148 birds, which apparently is good. One of the last things I remember is Tony telling me that by the end of the season I was going to be a good little beating dog :-)

More snow pics. Nice heavy snowfall

Dylan & me

Skye & Dylan. She was trying to eat the snowball from his hands

Dylan & Dad, snowball fight

Skye trying to catch snowballs

Dad & Mom having a snowball fight

The playground

Mom & me

Skye in the snow

The field

The church

Our street

New Year's Day walk in the Clent Hills

To the far right of this pic you can see how icy the path was

The above are a few pics of when we went walking in the Clent Hills on New Year's day. It was a great day out. We took puppydog with us, who was such a brilliant little star. There were lots of people and dogs around, but I let her off the lead and she was as good as gold. She made me feel so proud of her!

The Clent Hills are really beautiful. The day was made better by the fact that there was blue sky and sunshine. Yes, it was a weak, winter sunshine, and it was freezing cold (I think it was about -1), but it was good. Oh, and did I mention the treacherous iced paths and hills we had to face? Yep that's right. The paths and hills were completely, dangerously iced over. There was also snow everywhere. It was so beautiful though. And fun, when we weren't falling over or negotiating inches of ice and compacted snow!

We tried sticking to a map and directions, which didn't go too well at first. We ended up doubling back on ourselves a bit, until we eventually got onto the right path. We finished the walk by walking through a woodland (Skye was in her element!) and we were on our own so it was peaceful and quiet, and then we crossed this bridge and began a fairly steep ascent to the top of the woodland ridge.

When we reached the top of the ridge there was a family who wanted to say to Skye, so she put on her best behaviour and happily obliged them.

We then headed back to the car on this really, really icy path; and once back at the car had hot chocolate and laughed at people trying not to fall over (it's quite entertaining if you're not the one falling!), and Skye put her head on my lap and slept the whole way home.

Good day :-)

Christmas!

Today is christmas day, yet again! Where has this year gone?!

Woke up this morning (as you usually do in the mornings haha) and opened presents. Skye helped us by ripping up the paper and ripping the paper of presents. She loved it.

Then we went to church, and it was a pretty boring service and all the youth were sitting texting on their phones haha. The highlight of the service was when all the little kids got to go up on the stage and show off their presents, and one of the boys from youth (about 16) went up to the front for a joke, and he stood there the whole time (towering above the little kids!), and at the end he put his hand up and said that he got Michael Jackson socks!! hahahahaha!!!! All of the youth were all cracking up! It was hilarious!!

The Breens came over for christmas lunch (we had turkey, gammon, and duck, and all the other things you have); and we all made a lot of noise and ate too much food and sat and watched movies. After lunch Uncle Rob, Sean, Shan, Dylan and I took Skye for a long walk in the fields. It was fun, but cold. The snow we had yesterday didn't stick around so we didn't really have our white christmas!! :-( But we have patches of snow and ice all of the place, so I guess we had a bit of white.

We then came back from the walk and sat and watched Fawlty Towers haha.

The pup lay stretched out in front of the fire, content. It's been an exciting day of opening presents, saying hi to people, and walking. She is definitely a happy pup.

I'm proud of her. Feel like a proud mama. She has been so well behaved today. Hasn't jumped up at people or made a nuisance of herself :-)

I think I'm gonna go now as we're gonna have desert. Eat more food. Get fatter. You know how it goes. :-)